Moviestar
by pikapikatchu
Summary: Greg struggles with the idea of a movie about serial killer Neil Novak coming to life after getting attacked at a crime scene
1. Chapter 1

**Hello guys! It's taken me a while, but I have a new story ready. I hope you enjoy it. If you got the time, let me know what you think! Thanks and Big Love,**

 **pikapikatchu**

* * *

"Hey Greg, have you seen this yet?" Nick waved at his friend at a crime scene in North Vegas.

Greg looked at one of the two victims' shoes. "Yellow paint. Hasn't dried yet." He briefly looked around. "I don't see any place he could've stepped in it..."

As Greg stopped talking while staring into the crowd of people standing around the police tape, Nick tapped his friend's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just... this guy in the black jacket. He keeps looking at us, kinda creeps me out..."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Everybody's staring at us, Greg. It's nothing new, they always do that when they get the chance. Why is this guy different?"

He shrugged, looking at Nick. "I don't know, I just... He's creepy, don't you think?" When he turned back towards the crowd, the man in the black jacket was gone.

* * *

Three days later, Nick and Greg were called to another murder scene. A young man was found dead in front of a gas station, he had been chased down a few blocks before his murderer caught up with him and stabbed him. Working a scene like that meant processing the whole area the victim and murderer passed. After processing the first two blocks, Greg noticed some blood drops leading away from the scene.

As the clock hit 3 a.m., Greg was scraping what appeared to be a bloody strand of hair from a brick wall that matched the hair color and head wound of the victim. As he was packing away the little plastic bag of evidence into his kit, he noticed someone approach him. Believing this person to be Nick, he got up, meaning to point his flashlight in his direction. "I think I found some..."

He got interrupted by the approaching person slapping the flashlight out of his hand and pushing him against the wall. Greg was trying to fight back, but his attacker had a tight grip around him, immobilizing his arms. Still, he managed to make both fall to the ground, the attacker loosening his grip shortly. Breaking free for a moment, he tried to run away, but the attacker grabbed at him, gaining control over the situation again. Putting his hand on Greg's cheek, he smashed the CSIs head against the wall he had just recovered the bloody strand of hair from. Grabbing Greg's hair now, he smashed his head against the wall again.

Greg went down, defensively covering his head with his arms. Silence followed – but he could feel his attacker hadn't left just yet.

"Turn around," the man demanded. "And put your arms down. I wanna see the injury." Greg didn't react right away, so the man kicked his legs. "Come on now, don't make me do it for you."

Greg finally turned around and put his shaking arms down, but he couldn't get a good look at the man. His vision was blurry from the hits on the head and it was too dark, the street lights were out as it was typical for this area.

The next two minutes felt like an eternity for Greg. He had to lay there on the ground, bleeding and hurting, as this man was standing and staring.

After these two minutes, both men could hear steps approaching them. "Hey Greg, I think I know where this guy came from and..." Nick stopped talking as he noticed Greg's flashlight on the floor. "...Greg?" He walked on slowly, drawing his gun. As he saw something move, he quickly pointed his gun and flashlight in the direction. "Hey!" He yelled as he saw the attacker running away. He ran after him, but stumbled over Greg's kit and fell down. He quickly propped himself up again but realized it was too late, the stranger was already gone, running insanely fast. "...Greg?" Nick pointed his flashlight around anxiously, scared that the stranger might've hurt his friend.

"...I'm here... I'm... I'm alright," Greg whispered as he propped himself up, too.

* * *

After talking to Brass and Russell about this, they figured it was either a random attack aimed at the police or – their preferred theory – the murderer they were investigating that night trying to keep Greg from getting the evidence they needed to solve the case. Either way, they all were glad Greg survived the attack without any serious injuries. Except from a few scratches, bruises and a laceration on the head, he was fine. Physically, at least.

When Russell came into the lab a week after the attack, Greg was already sitting in the supervisor's office, nervously tapping his foot.

"Greg, you're here early." He looked at his watch. "Your shift doesn't start until midnight."

"I-I know," he replied nervously.

Russell walked in and sat down opposite the young CSI. "Are you alright? Do you need some time off? I offered you to take the whole week off, you literally made me agree to three days only."

Greg shook his head. "That's not it."

Russell frowned. "So what is it?"

Greg tapped his fingers nervously on the armrest before hopping off his seat to close the office door. "I messed up a little."

"Yeah?" Russell put his glasses down quite confused. "...Don't you want to sit back down again?"

Greg hesitated for a moment. "...Sure..." He sat down again, but this only caused his nervousness to show even more as he was fidgeting in his seat.

"...Is this about the attack?" Russell asked, hoping to help Greg talk about whatever was bothering him.

"Yeah... I think I left some parts out. ...Like, important parts."

Russell raised both his eyebrows quite shocked. "...Why?"

"I-I... well, first I tried to tell myself it didn't happen like it did. That I remembered wrong. Then, I was too... I just couldn't say it, I couldn't talk about it. Then I tried to write it down, but I think that's actually worse than just saying it, but now that I'm here I'm not so sure anymore..." He looked at his supervisor helpless and scared.

"Greg, what is it? You know you can tell me anything."

Greg was overwhelmed with anxiousness, so he got off his seat again. He turned around, too ashamed to face Russell as he uttered the words he kept hidden for a week. "...I think he masturbated."

"...Sorry?"

"T-The guy masturbated, right before Nick showed up."

The supervisor was surprised by this revelation. "You said it was too dark to see anything in that alley."

He turned back around to look at Russell. "It was. I-I didn't... see anything, alright? He told me to show him my injury, I think he... I just... I think I heard... God, this is embarrassing."

Russell couldn't help but smile. "It's not. But it sure changes the perspective to look at this case. I really wish you would've come forward right away." He sighed. "But I understand why you couldn't. Are you gonna be okay with this?"

Greg nodded. "Wasn't the greatest moment in my life but... not the worst, either," he joked. "But could we keep this between us two and Brass? I don't need the whole lab to know about this."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you guys for the kind reviews and interest in my story! I'm excited you enjoy it and hope you'll enjoy this chapter, too!**

* * *

Two days after Greg's confession to Russell, Nick was able to find the murderer in their case. Greg wanted to be there when they interrogated him, but Nick insisted he stayed away, hoping this murderer was also the one who attacked Greg.

Nick walked out of the interrogation room. "So, what do you think? Is it him?" he asked excited as the two were watching the murderer through the window of the interrogation room.

Greg shrugged. "I don't know, Nick. It was dark, I didn't see anything. But I think this guy is too short."

"Well, too bad he didn't say anything, huh? This guy here has a thick Australian accent, wouldn't be hard to identify him."

"He didn't have an accent," Greg replied quite absent-minded. "I-I think," he said as he realized he screwed up.

"So he **did** say something to you?" Nick asked surprised. Greg kept that information hidden for the first week and Russell didn't tell anybody else about it except Brass. "What did he say?"

"...This guy is not the one who attacked me, but at least we caught a murderer, huh?" Greg faked a smile as he patted Nick on the shoulder, turning around to walk away.

"Greg, wait. Why didn't you tell me about this?" He followed him. "Do Russell and Brass know about it? There's nothing about it in your report, you..."

Greg turned around to his friend in anger. "They know. Now leave me alone."

Nick looked at Greg surprised. "Alright, I apologize. It wasn't my intention to anger you."

"...You didn't, I'm sorry. I just don't want to talk about this all the time."

Nick frowned. "I'm just trying to help."

"I know. You'd help a lot more if you acted like nothing happened, though." Greg faintly smiled at him. "The guy who attacked me is still out there, that's all we need to know right now."

"And he might just have a problem with the police, we're all in danger."

Greg nodded thoughtful, not really buying this theory. There was something else to it, he was sure.

* * *

As the second week after the attack passed, Greg felt more and more uncomfortable out at his crime scenes. He chalked this up to the attack, but the more abandoned a crime scene was, the better he felt being there. It didn't make much sense to him, but the crowded places were the worst.

Concentrating enough so that he didn't notice his surroundings that much was the best way to cope with this unsettling feeling at the scenes, so while he was taking pictures of a gun lying next to one of the three victims on a crime scene right on the strip, he didn't hear Nick approach him. He startled when Nick touched him to get his attention.

"Whoa. Greg, it's just me," Nick said a little shocked, himself.

"Sorry," Greg smiled uncomfortably. "What's up?"

"...Are you alright? I've been watching you for a few days now, you're always nervous, it seems."

Greg sighed. "It's just the crowds I can't stand right now. They make me a little anxious. Give me a break, I got attacked and..." As he was looking through the crowd, he thought he recognized the man in the black jacket he had seen at a crime scene a few days before the attack. "...Wait."

"What is it?"

"This guy." He pointed at the man. "I've seen him at scenes before. I even pointed him out to you, remember?"

Nick looked at the man Greg was talking about. "I don't know, maybe? He's quite average looking, hard to tell whether I've seen him before or not."

"No, I know this is the guy." Still looking at him, Greg walked into the man's direction. "Hey, you."

As soon as the man realized Greg was approaching him, he ran away. "Stop!" The CSI ran after him.

* * *

"Come on, I thought he might've been the guy who attacked me," Greg said defensively as him and Nick walked into the lab.

"That's why it's ludicrous to run after him by yourself!" Nick replied enraged.

"I thought the officers at the scene would do their god damned job and follow me. **My** bad."

"Oh no, don't give me attitude now. You screwed up, you put yourself in a dangerous position."

Greg rolled his eyes. "I did not, the guy's not dangerous, he's just press."

"Yeah but you didn't know that when you ran after him." Nick walked into the break room annoyed and sat down. "He could've hurt you, too, you know."

Greg smiled. "But he didn't. He was a harmless guy. You're right, I shouldn't have run after him, I didn't think, I just acted."

Nick nodded. "Don't do that ever again, alright? ...Scared the hell out of me."

"Nick, it's fine!" Greg chuckled. "What's wrong with you?" The look on Nick's face made Greg realize his friend was hiding something from him. "...What **is** wrong with you?"

"...What? Nothing."

Greg raised an eyebrow. "I've known you long enough to notice the signs. You're hiding something from me."

"What? That's ridiculous, there are no signs because I'm not hiding anything."

"Fine, then don't tell me." Greg sat down opposite Nick. He pulled out his phone to check his mails. While he did that, he noticed Nick kept watching him with a rather pitying look on his face. Whenever Greg looked at him, he acted like he wasn't staring at him. After doing this four times, Greg had enough. "Alright. Spill it."

"...It's nothing."

"This is getting exhausting. Come on, what's bothering you?"

Nick sighed, finally giving in. "You know I talked to that guy you chased, after you walked back to the crime scene, right? He, uh, he asked a lot of questions about you."

"About me? Why?" Greg frowned. "...So he actually **was** stalking me?"

"...He followed you around, yes. He's not so much press as he's, you know, a filmmaker."

"...What? What are you talking about?" Greg got off his seat to fix himself a cup of coffee.

Nick didn't quite know how to say this, so he just did. "He's planning to make a documentary about Novak."

Greg almost dropped the cup in his hand. "W-what?"

"He said getting an actual victim to give an interview would boost the movie's artistic... whatever, I didn't really listen."

"...What did you tell him?"

"To get lost and stop bothering you, of course. And he promised he wouldn't anymore."

Greg didn't move away from the coffee machine and he didn't turn around to look at Nick. "Why can't I shake this? Wherever I go, this hangs over my head like a dark cloud."

"You know there isn't a serial killer out here who doesn't have at least one documentary about him. It's no big deal, you shouldn't stress over this. He'll make his movie and that's it, it won't influence your life at all."

Greg sighed as he sat down again. "You don't get it. I try to go on with my life, try to forget this all somehow, yet there's always someone who keeps me from moving on."

"No, **you** don't get it. **You're** the one keeping yourself from moving on because you want to forget it. Don't forget it, try to live with it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's another one, guys! Enjoy!**

* * *

Greg knew Nick was right, but he also knew it wasn't that easy to simply accept what happened, even if it happened years ago. It was still affecting his life too much for him to be able to move on. His romantic life suffered most, but there were other aspects in his life, other relationships, that had suffered, too. As he walked into a diner together with Nick after their shift to get some breakfast, he got reminded of one relationship that suffered the most and had been the hardest to maintain since the Novak ordeal.

"Is that Robin?" Greg asked, pointing at the booth in the corner of the diner. "Do you want to..." He stopped mid-sentence. "Isn't that... the filmmaker?"

"I-I think it is..." Nick replied, already knowing this wouldn't end well. "Come on, let's find another..." Nick couldn't finish his sentence, Greg was already walking up to Robin.

"What are you doing here?" Greg asked enraged.

"...Greg, hey." Robin looked surprised. "We're just..."

"What? Betraying me?!"

"Greg, come on..." Nick tried to pull him away, but he shook him off.

"No, I want to know what's going on!"

"...He's just asking a few questions," Robin tried to explain.

"Mr. Sanders, I'm Derek Cole. I'm doing a doc..." he tried to introduce himself to the already too enraged CSI.

Greg interrupted him. "I know. And I don't care. You're not going to profit off of my misery. And you shouldn't expose my life to him, Robin!"

"I'm not. I'm only telling him what happened. From my point of view." Robin was staying quite calm, despite Greg being very agitated right now.

"You have no right to do that!"

Nick was gently pushing Greg back to get between him and Robin. "I think it's fair to say that you're stepping over a lot of boundaries with this, Robin. You should consider if that's the right thing to do."

Robin raised her eyebrows. "I didn't even know you had a problem with it, Greg. Why would you? People should know what kind of a sick bastard Novak was, don't you think?"

"No! He should be forgotten! He's not worth getting his own documentary. Do you have any idea how much he'd love that?!" Greg was starting to yell, causing quite a scene.

Cole wrote everything that was happening right now down, the whole discussion between Robin, Greg and Nick.

But it took Greg a moment to realize that. "Do **not** write this down. Don't use this for your stupid movie!" As he was trying to grab the notepad out of Cole's hand, Nick finally intervened.

"That's enough! Come on, let's go." He was now quite forcefully grabbing Greg's arms to pull him away, forcing him out of the diner.

* * *

"Why'd you do that?!" Greg pushed Nick angrily as they arrived outside the diner.

"Because you were acting like a complete lunatic! Robin can do whatever she wants, maybe it helps her deal with it by contributing to this documentary. What's it to you?"

"In case you forgot, **she's** the one who got me into this mess! She doesn't get to decide what's best for **her** when it ends up hurting **me**!"

"Where is this coming from now? I thought you'd forgiven her. You know she didn't have much of a choice, she's a victim as much as you are."

Greg was too angry to reply to that right now. Deep down inside he knew Nick was right, but he hated the fact that he was. He didn't feel like Robin was a victim, he'd always considered her an enabler to Novak's perverted crimes, even though he knew she didn't mean any harm and was only trying to protect her girlfriend. So instead of keeping up the fight, he turned around and walked away.

"Greg, where are you going? The car's parked in that direction!" Nick pointed in the opposite direction of where his friend was going.

"I'm **walking** home!"

"Are you insane? You're over 12 miles away from home!"

* * *

"Don't do that **ever** again!" Nick stormed into the locker room quite unnerved.

"Do what?" Greg asked annoyed as he tied his shoes.

"Disappear for a whole day after walking home alone, passing some shady streets on your way there, and later not even picking up your phone!"

Greg rolled his eyes. "Sure, mom."

"It's not funny. I checked in with the police station, wondering if you were okay."

"Well, now you see... I **am** okay," he replied sarcastically.

"Oh stop it, it's not fair to act like I did something wrong. I was looking out for you, you were making an ass of yourself in that diner. Everybody was looking at us."

"So?" Greg gave him a look. "I had a lot more to say to Robin and this guy."

"Well then thank me for keeping you from doing it. How would you be able to work with her after going at her like that? **Years** after the incident."

"So because it's happened a while back I'm supposed to be over it, huh?"

Now Nick rolled his eyes. "That's not what I said. Or meant, for that matter. I just don't get where this is coming from now. I thought you were okay with her."

"I was. Up until the point she tried to sell me out to this guy."

"You don't even know what they were talking about. I get why she wants to tell the world what went down. She must feel horrible about this and wants everyone to know she had no other choice."

Greg was really struggling not to go at Nick the same way he did at Robin. "You know what, I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Nick sighed. "Maybe it'll help..."

Greg interrupted him. "Are you kidding me? For the past few years I did nothing **but** talk about it. Did it help? You tell me!"

"Alright, alright. I'll keep my mouth shut. I'm sorry."

Greg was starting to feel bad for lashing out at Nick that way. "...Don't be. **I'm** sorry. It's just... It's just the worst timing possible."

"...Why?" Nick asked a little confused.

"...I-I don't know what I'm saying. I just want this to go away, alright? I'm not talking to this guy and neither should you."

Nick nodded. "Never even crossed my mind."

* * *

The tension between Robin and Greg was noticeable for everyone close to them, especially Russell, so he asked them both to meet him in his office to talk about it.

While Robin was willing to work on the issues, Greg was a bit more reluctant to do so. As he sat down next to Robin in Russell's office, he placed himself with his body turned away from her. "So, what's this meeting about?" he asked, well aware of the answer.

"I'd like to know that from you two, actually," Russell replied with a smile on his face. "Is this something we can work out together?"

"It isn't," was all Greg had to say to this.

"He's just mad I didn't read his frickin' mind!" Robin tried to explain, only causing more confusion for Russell.

"Oh, is that what happened?" Greg asked sarcastically.

"You should've just told me you didn't want me to talk to Cole. I would've understood."

"I didn't even consider the possibility of you blabbing to this guy!"

"It's been five years, Greg. I thought you were over it."

Hearing this from Robin hurt Greg a lot. For some reason he thought she should understand, having been there when it happened. "Yeah well, I'm not."

Robin sighed. "Alright. I won't talk to him again, but it's not like I told him anything about you."

"Did you tell him what happened in your apartment?" When she nodded, Greg rolled his eyes. "Then you **did** tell him about me. You told him more about me than I wanted him to know."


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks so much for reading & reviewing this story! It means so much to see you guys care about the story and enjoy it! It was fun writing it ;)**

 **So here's the next chapter!**

* * *

"Hey, don't wander too far off, alright?" Nick yelled over to Greg, who was following a blood trail at a crime scene in a back alley.

Greg gave Nick a look. "I know, I know..." After the attack at a crime scene two weeks ago, the CSIs were extra careful at the scenes. "Hey Nick? I think I found something!"

The victim at their scene was missing a hand and it looked like an animal chewed it off. But the blood trail led Greg to the hand – and something else. "...Is this what I think it is?"

Greg nodded as he held the UV lamp to the ground. He had found the hand behind some bushes. "W-would you mind taking the sample? I'm not feeling too well..."

"Are you alright?" Nick asked concerned.

"Yeah, just... Please." He put the UV lamp in Nick's hand and walked away.

* * *

"You found semen at the scene?" Russell asked with his eyebrows raised as him and Nick walked through the lab's halls.

"Not only at the scene, but also on the severed hand. And it's not the victim's," Nick explained.

Russell took a look at the DNA results. "The case is yours and Greg's, right?"

Nick nodded. "We found some foot prints in that area that don't match the victim's, too, but it seems like the semen donor was alone. Kinda weird, huh?"

Russell nodded thoughtful. "Where is Greg?"

"I last saw him in the evidence room, but he said he wasn't feeling well earlier at the scene, so I don't know where he is now."

"...Really? Well, how about you work on that case alone, maybe get Hodges to help out a little. If he's not feeling well he should go home."

"I don't think it's that bad, Russell." Nick smiled, thinking he helped Greg with this.

"...Let me talk to him."

* * *

"There you are. Nick said you didn't feel well." Russell walked into the DNA lab, where Greg was processing some evidence. "...What are you working on?"

"Evidence from our case."

Russell raised his eyebrows. "Where's Robin?"

"On her break."

"So what happened at your scene?"

Greg shrugged. "Nothing, what do you mean?"

"You know, if you and I are both thinking the same about this case and if we're right... It's not a good idea for you to process the evidence."

"I'm not processing, I'm just running them through the databases again."

"...Again?"

Greg looked up to Russell from the computer. "This could lead us to the guy who attacked me."

"I know, which is why we must be very careful with it. You shouldn't be anywhere near this case."

"Russell, what am I suppose to tell Nick? He'd ask questions, like everybody else."

"Well maybe that's a good moment to tell him what's going on."

"I can't! It's embarrassing..." Greg frowned.

"It's not. And I could tell him, if that'd make it easier for you."

Greg shrugged insecure. "I-I don't know, he's always worrying too much."

"So? Stop thinking about other people's well-being and start thinking about your own. If you'll profit from telling him, tell him."

"Y-you know what? It's way too early to draw any conclusions. We have no evidence to support our theory. I'll step back from the case, but nobody needs to know why, alright?"

* * *

Greg was in luck – there was another case someone needed to take on – a perfect excuse to abandon the case he and Nick had been working on. When Greg arrived back at the lab after working his crime scene, he felt like he was being followed on his way from his car to the lab. He kept turning around quite frightened, but the streets were empty. He feared he was starting to lose his mind over this, but this feeling seemed all too real. When he turned back around to keep walking, Derek Cole was standing in front of him, startling him. "Jesus! What the hell are you doing?!"

"My apologies, I didn't mean to scare you," Cole replied with a smile on his face.

"What the **hell** do you expect, sneaking up on me in the middle of the night?!" Greg almost yelled at him.

"Alright, I said I'm sorry. I just need to talk to you, it's important."

"I think you already know my answer. Now get out of my way before I arrest you."

"Arrest me? Mr. Sanders, I'm just trying to talk to you. I think the Neil Novak cases deserve some publicity. Their vitctim's families deserve it."

"Did you even ask them if they want that kind of exposure?"

Cole hastily nodded. "Of course. Almost everybody's on board, most even agreed to be in the documentary."

Greg looked a bit surprised. "...They are?"

Cole nodded again. "Of course. They want the world to know what kind of a person Novak was. They want to tell their part of the story, you know?"

Greg shrugged. "So what do you need me for?"

"Don't you realize what kind of rare opportunity you're facing? You're one of very few people who survived a vicious attack from a serial killer! More than once, even!" Cole had this exciting smile on his face that kind of scared Greg. He didn't understand how anybody could get excited with a topic like that, in a way like this guy was being right now. "Don't you realize? You're special! You're the one in a million. You faced a serial killer... a perverted, dangerous and brutal one like Novak, no less. You faced him and... you won. Why are you trying to hide from the world? You're like a unicorn!"

* * *

"...He said that?" Nick asked quite surprised as Greg told him about his encounter with Cole.

"Yeah." Greg nodded.

"So... how do you feel about that?"

"Oh please, like I fall for that. He acts like I don't realize how lucky I am. This doesn't change that I don't want to be a part of his stupid movie. What do I gain from it? What does anyone gain from it aside from him? Nothing, right?"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to hear from me?"

"What? Nothing. I made the right choice, that's all I'm saying."

"I never questioned it. ...Do you?"

Greg shook his head. "No. ...I mean, I'm just not the type to sit in front of a camera and... No."

Nick smiled. "Relax, Greg. It's no big deal. This movie will happen with or without you, and that's alright, right?"

"...I guess so."


	5. Chapter 5

**Happy Easter! What better gift to receive than a new chapter from this story? ;)**

 **Have a nice day and enjoy!**

* * *

Greg sat in the evidence room staring at a laptop. He didn't notice Nick walking in when he did. "What are you watching?" he asked quite casually.

Greg closed the laptop as he startled. "Nothing. I mean..." He opened the laptop back up. "Cole sent me a clip from his documentary."

"...He did?"

Greg nodded. "He thinks seeing what he's done so far might change my mind."

Nick sat down next to him. They watched the ten minute clip together, but Nick kept looking over to Greg, trying to read in his face what he was thinking about this clip.

The tension in the CSIs face slowly faded as the clip progressed. At the end of the clip he had a rather relieved look on his face. "Well... I don't think it's too bad."

"Yeah, he did a good job. It's tasteful."

"Yeah..." Greg looked thoughtful before getting off his seat.

"Where are you going?"

"I gotta go back to work."

"...Don't you want to talk about this?"

"About what? This doesn't change my mind."

Nick shrugged. "No, I know. I just... There were things in there I didn't even know. Did you?"

Greg leaned against the door frame. "No, I didn't, either. But do you think it's a coincidence he sent me these scenes? He wants me to feel bad for Novak." The scenes the CSIs just watched showed a little about Novak's past. How he had been abused as a child several times by different people. Even though Cole was doing a thorough job and wanted his documentary to be as accurate as possible, this piece of information was false. The filmmaker didn't know about it, but Novak's mother had made these things up years ago, trying to excuse his behavior. "It's not working."

"And you're sure about this?"

"Nick, why are you trying to force this on me? I told you several times I'm not interested in this movie. I'd rather he didn't make it at all, but since I can't influence that... I'm not going to be a part of it."

"I'm not trying to force anything on you. I just think you should..."

"Nick, please. **Please** don't tell me what to do. I don't need your advice. I know I don't want anything to do with this. Remember the book about Novak? That turned out great, didn't it?" Greg said sarcastically. A guy who first claimed to be Novak's son wrote a book about the cases that was done in a very tasteless, sensationalized way. Greg ended up getting a lawyer to protect his privacy and he swore to himself to never fall for anything like that again. When the book was published, some of Greg's friends and family who knew he was one of Novak's victims, but didn't know how bad the situation really was, called him about it. He didn't want that to happen again, with the documentary shedding even more light on the case.

"Listen. It's gonna happen either way. You can make changes, you know? If there's something you don't want in the movie... He'll never know unless you tell him. You don't have to spill your guts to this guy, but maybe your involvement isn't the worst idea. Don't you agree?"

* * *

Greg thought about what Nick said and he actually agreed. He hadn't thought about it that way, he just wanted it gone. But with the recent attack he didn't want to think about the Novak case more than he already did, anyway. It was the worst timing, he thought. But now that Nick set the seed in his head, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Yeah but it's only a matter of time before he starts raping his victims. Do it now." Nick and Robin were walking past Greg in the lab's hallways, talking about Nick's latest case.

"New case?" Greg asked, tagging along, trying to take a peek at the files Robin was carrying.

"Yeah, just a peeping Tom. I have five murder cases and one kidnapping case waiting for my attention, I can't squeeze this in today, Nick. I'm sorry." The lab tech handed Nick the files and the evidence bag back.

"He's not a regular peeping Tom! He beats his victims and seems to get off on the injuries. That's sexual assault. I'm telling you, rape's the next step, then comes murder," Nick explained.

"Wait, back up, what..." Greg said shocked, but Robin interrupted him.

"His victim. **One** victim. It doesn't justify putting it at the top of the list."

"Well then I'll have to talk to Russell about this."

* * *

Greg followed Nick to Russell's office quite nervously. He still didn't want Nick to find out about what really happened in the back alley, he was too embarrassed and didn't want Nick to worry. "Russell, we need to talk." Nick walked in, putting the files and evidence bag on Russell's desk. "Robin refuses to process these samples today just because she says it's not as important as her other cases."

Russell nodded. "What's the case about?" He opened the files.

While Nick filled Russell in, Greg contemplated sneaking out of the office again. He felt highly uncomfortable and it showed.

The way he described it reminded the supervisor a lot of what Greg went through just days earlier. He looked over to Greg and they shared a look.

Nick noticed. "...What was that?"

Russell ignored him. He closed the files and folded his hands on them. "Thank you, Nick. I'll take over. I need you to work on another case."

The CSI frowned. "Okay... but I'd rather keep on working on **my** case. Can you just tell Robin that she needs to squeeze the samples in?" His eyes kept wandering between Russell and Greg. He sensed that something was going on.

"I'll take care of it."

Nick turned around to look at Greg. "Is there anything you have to say to this?"

"...What? Me? No." Greg had quite an insecure look on his face.

"Yeah? Then why did you insist on coming with me? And why are you pulling me off the case, Russell? What's going on?"

Again, Greg and Russell shared a look. "It's complicated. But I rather have you helping Sara with her case. I'll take care of this."

Nick walked out of the office annoyed and angry. He felt something was up.

* * *

After Russell talked to Robin, she processed the DNA from the case the supervisor took over. Like Nick, she didn't know that Russell suspected the case to be related to Greg's attack, so she called both Nick and Russell into the DNA lab for the results. Nick arrived a few minutes before Russell, so she started talking to him about it.

"I think you might be onto something, this might not just be an average peeping Tom." She handed him the results. "He wasn't in the database but his profile matched the semen sample you and Greg found at your scene. The one with the hand, you know."

When she finished that sentence, Russell walked in. "What did you just say?"

She repeated herself as she handed Russell a copy of the results.

"Have you found a match with another case?"

She shook her head. "Just these two."

"Any matches to one of the DNA samples Nick found on the Weller case?"

"...What?" Nick asked confused. "Why should they be a match?"

Nick walked into the break room. "Hey Greg, do you have a minute?"

Greg had just hung up the phone with a distraught look on his face. "What is it?"

"...Oh, sorry. Is this a bad time?"

"Yeah, but... I doubt there'll be a better time, soon, so... What's up?"

"What do you mean? Who was that on the phone?" Nick sat down.

Greg shook his head. "One of Novak's victim's mother. I don't want to talk about it right now."

"...You know what? This **is** a bad time." Nick got off his seat.

"No, tell me. I could use a distraction."

Nick sighed. "Remember the semen sample I took off of our victim's severed hand? It matches the sample I took from my sexual assault case."

"...Really?"

Nick nodded with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"...Russell told you, didn't he?"

Nick nodded again. "He had to."

Silence followed.

"This changes nothing, alright?" Greg finally said. "You don't have to treat me any different, you don't have to feel sorry for me... It changes nothing."

"Sure," Nick replied, trying to do what his friend was asking him to - acting like this didn't happen or at least didn't impact Greg's life as much as it actually did right now.

Another moment of silence followed before Greg started talking about the phone call he had when Nick walked in. "So, one of Novak's victim's mothers called me about the documentary... She asked me to participate. She says it's important this story is told properly to honor the victims or something."

"...Okay."

"...What do you think about that?"

Nick shrugged. "I think you should care more about what you want and less about what anyone else wants. They all have their personal agenda. Cole wants to make his movie, this mother wants her son honored and other relatives and friends of some of the other victims sure have their own reasons for doing this. What would you gain from helping make this documentary, aside from pleasing somebody else's needs?"

After Nick seemed to have tried to talk Greg into participating in the planned documentary, Greg was surprised to get that kind of answer from his friend. He had a friendly, warm smile on his face. "Thank you, Nick."


	6. Chapter 6

**Next chapter, enjoy!**

* * *

Greg was feeling better about not adding anything to the Novak documentary after his friend showed his full support in this decision. He needed to hear from somebody else that his decision was the right one, that he didn't need to feel bad about it. The two CSIs were called to another scene with quite a crowded audience standing behind the yellow police tape that was wrapped around the scene, the parking lot of a supermarket.

"Are you alright?" Nick asked as he noticed his friend had been looking over his shoulder quite a few times since they arrived an hour ago. "You mentioned busy scenes make you a little nervous and... well, there's at least 30 onlookers here."

"It's fine." He sighed. "I just keep wondering if the attack was random or not, you know? The last victim said she was being followed by the attacker."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "It was totally different. She said a guy was following her around a club shortly before she was attacked, but she doesn't know if he's the same guy that attacked her. ...How do you even know this? Did you read the file?"

Greg nodded as he picked up a bullet casing. "I know I shouldn't have, but... I was hoping it could help us with the case."

"How?" Nick shrugged as he bagged a shoe.

"I don't know. I was kinda hoping she saw his face and described it..."

Nick shook his head. "Do yourself a favor and try not to think about it too much."

"I know, I am... I..." he stopped talking as he spotted Cole in the middle of the crowd. "What's he doing here?"

* * *

Greg walked over to find out what Cole wanted. "What's going on?"

"Hey, Mr. Sanders. I need to talk to you". You didn't call after I sent you some material from my documentary. Do you have any questions about it?"

"...I'm at work, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

The yellow police tape was between the two men, but Cole kept coming closer, anyway. "You wouldn't answer my calls. We need to talk, please."

"Fine. I don't have any questions. Is that it?"

"Come on, Mr. Sanders. ...Greg, please. This is important. I have a few ideas to tackle the part that involves you in case I can't change your mind, but I'd still like to get your 'okay' on that, too. I really don't mean to offend you in any way."

Greg frowned. "...The part that involves me?"

Cole nodded. "Yeah, I'll include it, despite your aversion against the movie. It's part of the story and you can't keep me from including it, legally, but I'd still want to get your okay on it."

After Nick's encouraging words, Greg was much more relaxed about this documentary. "Alright. You won't ever change my mind, so do your thing with that part of the story and send it to me, I'll let you know what I think. But other than that, leave me alone."

* * *

Two weeks later, more sexual assaults committed by the man who attacked Greg had occurred and the attacker was getting more and more brutal. One of his victims, a young man, was beaten so severely that he was in a coma. But Nick did revisit his murder case that had the attacker's DNA on the victim's severed hand. It turned out that Greg's attacker didn't have anything to do with the murder or the hand being detached from the body. Greg had received Cole's ideas for the parts of the Novak stories that involved the CSI today and before talking with the movie maker about it he wanted to discuss it with Nick first.

"He said again how sad he was that I didn't want to get involved, that he thinks this is the most important part and... He even thought about making a documentary about me and my life." Greg showed quite some discomfort as he told Nick about Cole's ideas. "That's a little weird, right?"

Nick nodded. He sat down at the table in the break room with a coffee mug in his hand. "So did he come up with a good idea to do these scenes without your involvement?"

"Well, his first idea was to reenact the scene with actors. I'm not sure I like that. I mean, I don't want to see this again, I..."

Nick interrupted him. "You don't plan on seeing the flick, anyway, or do you?"

"...I don't know yet."

Nick sighed. "And the other idea?"

"The other idea would be to show pictures of the scene while the voiceover tells what happened." Greg cringed a little. Both ideas sounded horrible to him and unbearable to watch.

"...I think I like this one a little better." Nick shrugged.

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know, I just hate these reenactments. They're always executed horribly."

"You're right, but... Pictures from the scene? It was such a bloody mess and... There'd be my pictures in there, too."

"...What?"

Greg shrugged. "The pictures of my wounds. He claims he won't use any with my face on it but I'm not comfortable with him using any of my body, either."

"Well maybe you can talk him out of using any pics with you on it. Tell him to show some more of Novak's wounds. The audience probably prefers those, anyway."

"I'll try. He asked me to drop by his office later. Maybe we can work something out."

Nick smiled. He thought the way Greg was dealing with this problem now was quite impressive. He was proud of his friend.

* * *

After running some errands after his shift, Greg met with Derek Cole in his office. The media company Cole worked for had it's office in North Vegas, not too far away from where Greg got attacked at a month earlier. The CSI took the elevator to ride up the 9th floor of this big office building. Four other people got into the elevator and two of them went up the same floor as he did. While in that elevator, he had a weird feeling he couldn't explain. He felt uncomfortable and felt like getting out, but since there was no obvious danger he figured it was just a random panic attack he didn't have very often anymore, but guessed it was caused by the recent events and the thought of the Novak documentary coming to life.

When he finally reached the 9th floor, the feeling didn't really fade until Cole greeted him and asked him inside his office. They talked about the documentary and how Cole could adapt the scenes in question so that Greg would be happy with the product. They managed to find some basis to work on and Cole promised to make some changes the CSI insisted on.

As they were talking about the last few changes, one of Cole's colleagues knocked on his door. "...Sorry," he said as he looked at Greg.

As the colleague turned around to walk out again, Cole stopped him. "Wait. Did you collect all the signatures yet?"

"Almost," the colleague said before walking out.

"...Who's he?" Greg asked with a concerned look on his face. "He looks familiar." The man was one of the four people riding the elevator with him earlier.

"Ed Abrams, my assistant," Cole explained. "I asked him to contact some of the families we don't need interviews from, you know?"

Greg nodded as he looked towards the door. "Has he been in any of your documentaries?"

"Him?" Cole chuckled. "No. Why?"

"I've seen him before. I just can't place him."


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's the next chapter, guys! Enjoy!**

* * *

"Come on, how else did your prints end up on that door knob?" Nick was interrogating a suspect in his and Greg's current case. "There's no point in denying, we **know** you were in that room."

Greg walked in with some pictures in his hands Nick had asked him to get. "There. That's obviously you leaving the room with what looks like a bloody knife."

"There's no way you can prove that that's a bloody knife. And so what, I was in that room. Unless you can tell when I left those prints there, you have no proof," the suspect replied quite cocky.

"Yeah? Then how about this?" Greg showed him some DNA reports. "Your DNA under the victim's nails, his blood drops on your shoes."

As two officers walked up to the suspect, he started yelling at Nick and Greg and making violent gestures towards the two. The officers cuffed him and walked him away.

"Are you alright, Greg?" Nick asked a little concerned.

His friend had quite a distressed look on his face as he sat down again. "Yeah, it's fine. This guy's wearing the same scent Novak wore, and he's a smoker. Gives me the chills everytime I smell the combination."

Nick nodded as he patted him on the shoulder. "It's weird how smells can trigger our memories."

"Right..." Greg had a weird look on his face.

"What is it?"

"I was at Cole's office today. His assistant, I think I've seen him somewhere before. And his smell, I think I know why I had a weird feeling when I was in the elevator with him."

* * *

Greg hurried to the A/V lab with Nick tagging along. "What's going on, Greg?"

"Let me just check something..." Using one of the computers in the lab, he went through all the mails he received from Cole. "Edward Abrams..." he mumbled as he typed the assistant's name in the computer. "There he is. He's a registered sex offender." He had a rather relieved look on his face.

"...That's a good thing?"

"No, but I was scared he might've been the guy we're looking for. His scent, it reminded me of the attack, I think. But since he's registered we would've gotten a hit in the DNA database."

Nick nodded. "But it's a bad idea to let a sex offender work on a documentary about a serial rapist. You need to talk to Cole about this."

* * *

Right after shift, Greg went back to Cole's office. As he was walking through the office he passed a group of people. He heard one of them say, "Come on now, don't make me do it for you." followed by the whole group laughing. He stopped with a shocked look on his face. The way this man said those words – words his attacker said to him – sounded way too familiar. The voice had a similarly dark timbre and he just knew it was the same person who said this. But turning to the group of people, he saw Ed Abrams talking to three women.

"Greg, hi," Cole said with a smile on his face as he walked up to the CSI. "What a surprise. What can I do for you?"

"...I-I need to go. I'll come by later. Sorry." He stormed off.

* * *

Greg had been sitting in the DNA lab for half an hour, nervously typing into the computer. "Nick! Hey, Nick! Get in here!" he yelled to his friend who was just walking by the lab.

"What's up?"

"It's him. Ed Abrams."

"What? Did you talk to Cole? Does he think Abrams..."

He interrupted Nick. "No. Didn't get the chance. But I walked by a group of people on my way to Cole. Abrams was one of them. He said something that reminded me of what the attacker said to me."

"...You never told me he talked to you."

"Because it was irrelevant. And more a command than anything else. ...Not important, Nick. I just **know** it's him."

"But we would've gotten a hit in the databases if it was him, you said that yourself. Maybe your mind's playing tricks on you. I mean, you know he's a sex offender, so..."

"No! Nick, I just know it. I've been in here over half an hour, trying to find out what's going on. It just doesn't make any sense... Maybe there's something wrong with the samples."

"...All of them? That's ridiculous."

"...Wait. Look at that." He showed Nick the computer screen, showing Abrams' DNA profile. "How can that be? I-It's empty."

"What do you mean, empty? ...What the hell?" Nick stared at the screen in confusion.

"There's no DNA profile. Someone must've messed with this, there's no way anyone made that mistake." He checked where Abrams was booked. "Barstow, California. That's a small town, but they still couldn't have made a mistake like that. They don't process DNA evidence, they send it in. What happened here?"

* * *

"What do you mean, sex offender?" Cole asked Greg as he closed the door to his office. Him and Nick were paying the moviemaker a visit.

"He was caught masturbating near a school," the younger CSI explained.

"...Oh, that."

Greg raised his eyebrows. "You knew about this?"

"Well, he said he was urinating but the cops didn't believe him."

"And you believed that?"

"Yeah, of course. I've known him since high school. I trust him."

"But... with a documentary about a... you know, about a guy like Novak, don't you think you shouldn't let anyone work on that who..."

"Look, Greg," he interrupted the CSI. "I understand why this is upsetting for you. I get that you're uncomfortable with this, but he's part of the team. An important part, that is. He did most of the research."

"...He did? Like what?"

Cole shrugged. "I don't know, mostly about Novak's past. Some of the victims, too, I think."

"...What about me?"

Cole sighed as he grabbed some files out of a desk drawer. "This is ridiculous. He's a great guy, he'd never hurt kids." He read in the files for a moment. "Yeah, he did research on you, too. I'm sorry for all this. I'll try to keep him away from your story if you like, but..."

"No, you don't understand. We need to talk to him. We'll need a DNA sample."

"What for? Didn't the officers who booked him take one already?"

"They did, but there seems to have been a problem with it," Nick chimed in.

"What problem?"

"You know, we really can't talk about ongoing investigations, we've said too much already."

Cole raised his eyebrows. "Investigation? You're investigating a case from two years ago? Save yourself the time and the tax payers their money. Nothing happened. He urinated, they thought he was jerking off. End of story."

"It's about recent cases. Where is he?"

* * *

"Hey Eddie," Cole said to Abrams as him, Greg and Nick walked up to the man. "These two want to talk to you about some sexual assaults that happened in the last few weeks."

"...Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow.

Greg didn't feel too comfortable facing this man. The mere possibility of him being the man who attacked him almost caused a panic attack, but he tried to stay calm. Nick could sense Greg's discomfort, though, and tried to help him deal with this situation as good as possible.

"Mr. Abrams," Nick approached him in a stern voice, "We're gonna need a DNA sample from you."

Abrams hardly looked at Nick, his eyes were fixated on Greg. "Do you have a warrant?"

Greg got chills as he heard the man's voice.

"We do. Open your mouth, please." Nick grabbed a cotton swab out of his pocket.

"Can't we do that somewhere else?"

"Sure. You can come down the station with us."

Abrams sighed as he rolled his eyes. "Just do it."

As Nick took the DNA sample from him, Abrams kept his eyes on Greg, subtly grinning at him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hope you guys enjoy the story so far! Maybe let me know what you think :)**

* * *

"I just don't think it was a good idea for you to come with me. I saw the way he looked at you." Nick was walking through the lab's hallway with a worried look on his face.

"I didn't like it, either, but I think it was for the better," Greg tried to explain himself, knowing as much as Nick that there was no reason for him to be there when Nick took the sample from Abrams.

"How so?" Nick asked as he walked into the DNA lab.

"...Cole would've been even more protective of Abrams if I... wasn't there."

Nick gave him a look. "You're not even trying anymore, do you?" He handed Robin the DNA sample. "Match them with the recent sexual assault cases and then run it through the system. Who knows for how long this pervert has been doing this."

"Yeah, this might take a little while..." Robin looked quite distracted, not even looking at the two.  
"Why?"

"System's been down for half an hour."

"...What do you mean?"

"All the computers at the lab are down. We can't access CODIS or AFIS or any other of the systems. I've been trying to get this stupid thing to work again but nothing's working. We're waiting for tech support right now."

Nick sighed annoyed. "Great. Let me know when everything's working again. This one has top priority."

* * *

The tech support needed almost an hour to get the lab computers working again. They didn't find out what was causing the problems but assumed it was an attack or a virus. When Robin was done with Nick's DNA sample, she texted him to meet her in the DNA lab. "Results are back. He's not your guy."

"...What?" Nick grabbed the paperwork out of her hand. "That's impossible. Greg seemed so sure. You should've seen his face everytime the guy talked. The way he looked at Greg, I... it doesn't make any sense."

Robin gave him a sympathetic smile. "You know how it is with post-traumatic stress. Victims tend to see their attacker everywhere. And with someone who's been through similar things over and over again... I guess sometimes the whole world becomes the attacker."

Nick nodded thoughtful. It wouldn't have been the first time Greg put another person's face on his attacker's body – he even had this with Nick. "I know you're right but... Greg's not imagining this, I know it."

* * *

Greg sat in the break room rather discouraged and confused. He had heard about the DNA results – Abrams' sample didn't match the ones collected at the scenes. Greg didn't understand how this could be, he was sure he was the one who attacked him.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Nick asked as he walked in with an empty mug in his hand.

"Thinking," was all the CSI replied as he stared into space.

"Come on, don't beat yourself up on this. We'll find out what's going on."

"I don't think I'm wrong, Nick. I... I know what this guy sounded like. And smelled like."

"I know. I believe you. And I was thinking... What if he was the one who attacked you, but didn't attack those other people?"

Greg raised an eyebrow. "Two guys running around town sexually assaulting people in the same way? Sounds like a bit of a stretch, doesn't it?"

"Well, what if they're a team or something?"

Greg had a smile on his face. "You really believe me, don't you?"

"Of course. I've seen the way he looked at you. There's something off with this guy and if you say he's the one who attacked you, I believe you."

"...Thanks. I was starting to question myself but... It's nice to know someone's believing me."

* * *

"You can't let him work on the documentary anymore." Greg had a determined look on his face as he sat down in Cole's office.

"But you cleared him. He's one of my hardest working guys on the team. I need him." Cole and Abrams had been friends for a long time and he trusted him. And not only did he need him – Abrams needed Cole.

"Just because he was cleared doesn't mean he's not a sex offender. It also doesn't mean he didn't attack me," the CSI tried to explain.

"...Excuse me? Do you have any evidence to support that theory? Even circumstential evidence?"

"No, but..."

"So all you have is your memory of what the attacker sounded like? Listen, Greg, I know you're just trying to do your job but... With a backstory like yours, that screams post-traumatic stress disorder... How can you be so sure?"

Greg looked quite offended. He was well aware that he did suffer from post-traumatic stress but he was sure it didn't influence him this time. "I just know. I can't prove anything yet, but..."

Ed Abrams walked into the office. "Hey Mr. Sanders. I heard my DNA didn't match your cases... or any other, for that matter." He smirked.

"...Ed, come on," Cole tried to intervene.

"What? Am I suppose to shut up about this just because of who he is? They took a DNA sample in front of the whole office, what do you think that felt like, Mr. Sanders?"

Greg sat there, hardly looking at Abrams.

"How about an apology? Maybe where everyone can hear it."

"...I don't know what happened, but I know he did it," Greg whispered to Cole as he got off his seat.

As he tried to walk out of the office, Abrams stopped him by putting his fingers on the CSIs chest. "Where's my apology?"

Greg pushed his hand away. "Don't touch me. You're not getting **anything** from me."

* * *

Greg stormed into the lab quite furiously. He was frustrated and scared and since he had no other way to deal with those feelings, he got angry. "I **know** he's the one we're looking for and we can't do **anything**!" He stormed into the break room, where Nick and Hodges were talking as they sat down at the table.

"Who?" Hodges asked confused.

"The sexual assault case," Nick whispered to him. "What happened?"

" **'** **What happened?'** I'll tell you what! This idiot wanted an apology because we couldn't prove anything!"

"Well, he can ask for an apology all he wants but.."

Greg interrupted him. "He thinks he's so smart, that we can't do anything about it. I **hate** this guy."


	9. Chapter 9

**Here's another chapter, hope you like it.**

 **Have a great weekend, my lovely readers!**

* * *

Almost two hours into his shift, Greg got an interesting call while at a crime scene with Nick. "That's good to know... thank you. Yeah, maybe I'll drop by later. Thanks, bye!" He walked up to his friend with a grin on his face. "Guess what. Ed Abrams is under arrest for hitting a few red lights."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Arrest?"

"Yeah, he didn't have his license with him and insulted the officer who stopped him. Seems like the pressure's getting to him." The grin on his face was almost a smug one.

Nick shook his head as he smiled. "Well it's something, I guess."

"Hey Sanders, would you mind taking a look at this?" officer Young winked him over. He lead him three blocks away from the scene. "Bullet cases and some blood drops. You think this has anything to do with your scene?"

Greg shrugged. "Maybe, but the bullet casings don't match the ones Nick collected earlier. And their position, it... looks weird." He took some pictures before bagging the casings.

Young's cell phone rang. "Oh damn, do you mind if I take it? I'll stay close." He walked away when Greg nodded.

When the clock hit 2a.m., Greg heard footsteps approach him. "That was quick," he said a bit surprised, thinking it was officer Young. As he turned around, he was hit in the face with a wooden slat, breaking on impact. He went down, disoriented for a moment. He tried to get up, but this attempt was met with kicks to his side. In this all too familiar situation, he could do nothing but lie there and try to protect his face and head with his arms as good as possible.

"No, turn around. Show me your face," the dark voice whispered. "I missed you."

Greg's attacker walked a few steps closer, trying to get a better look at the CSI's face.

Greg slowly sat up, his back leaned against a wall. He was dizzy and could hardly move his mouth – the wooden slat had hit the left side of his mouth. Calling for help was impossible in the state he was in.

"Yeah, that's good..."

Propping himself up on the wall behind him, he slowly got up. It confused the attacker. "No, stay down!" he yelled.

Greg didn't obey. Instead, the CSI pulled his gun out and shot at the attacker.

A bullet hit him, he fell to the ground. After a short moment of shock, he quickly picked himself up again to run away.

Greg wanted to run after him, but was too weak to do so. He slowly sat down again, a tight grip around his gun and slightly pointing it to where the attacker stood a few seconds ago. Officer Young had heard the shots and ran after the attacker.

A few moments later, Nick had run to the scene, too. He looked around quite hectically before he spotted Greg in a corner. "...What happened? Are you alright?" He hurried towards his friend. He looked at him quite shocked as he saw the bruised, bloody face.

"I shot at him," he said quite agitated. "I-I shot him."

* * *

Officer Young wasn't able to catch up with the injured attacker, he got away. Greg sat in the police station's lobby, waiting for Brass to question him about the shooting. He held an ice pack to his face, gazing into space when Nick approached him.

"Hey, how're you holding up?"

He nodded. "Hurts when I talk."

Nick sat down next to him. "I meant emotionally."

"What, because I shot that guy? Yeah, I'm fine."

Nick couldn't help but hear the sarcastic tone in his friend's voice. "You had no other choice."

"I shouldn't even have been put in that position. Officer Young shouldn't have wandered off as far away as he did."

The older CSI nodded. While he was angry with the officer, too, he knew that Greg needed to put the blame on someone else right now, even though Young didn't deserve it. Both men watched Ed Abrams walking out of the station. "...I guess the recent events rule him out as a suspect, after all..."

Greg shook his head. "Not at all."

"...Greg. He's been under arrest the whole night, there's no way he could've done this."

"Whoever attacked me tonight... wasn't the guy who attacked me two weeks ago."

"What? Didn't you say he said he missed you?"

"Yeah, so?" Greg rolled his eyes as he got off his seat, starting to walk up and down quite nervously.

"Well... doesn't that imply he's seen you before and... the way you described the attack it was pretty similar to the first one."

"It wasn't the same guy, Nick!"

"...Alright, calm down. I'm sorry. I just don't think it's very likely you get attacked twice in the same way by two different men. I know you want Abrams to be the bad guy, but... Maybe he **is** innocent."

* * *

"I don't know what else to tell you. They don't match." Robin handed Russell the results to a DNA test she had just performed.

The supervisor nodded. "Thank you. That's surprising and... confusing, but thank you." He walked out of the DNA lab, bumping into Nick and Greg.

"Hey guys. "The DNA sample doesn't match." He couldn't hide his surprise. "The blood collected from the guy you shot, Greg... It doesn't match with the samples we got from the crime scenes."

"...Wait, what?" Nick asked shocked. "He's not the guy who's attacking all the people?"

"I **told** you! I knew it!" Greg exclaimed. "He's not the guy who attacked me!"

"His DNA isn't in the system. Whoever he is, this was the first time he did it."

"He's probably someone Abrams paid to attack me or something. It's him. Guys, I'm telling you, it's him!"

"We have nothing to back that claim up. In fact, we have enough evidence that tells us otherwise." The supervisor shrugged. "I just don't know how we could convince anyone of the opposite."

"He tempered with the evidence," the young CSI concluded.

Nick rolled his eyes. "When? How? I took his sample, you were there the whole time. Don't tell me you think he leaves somebody else's semen at scenes to throw us off , because that's ridiculous."

"...I haven't thought of that, yet... What if he does?"

"Greg, stop it. This is getting ridiculous. Some victims **know** that that's not what happened."

Greg looked at his two colleagues in silence before he took a few steps towards the DNA lab. "I'll run the tests again."

"No, stop." Russell grabbed his shoulders to stop him. "You can't touch the evidence, you know that. Robin did nothing wrong and the evidence is fine, too. He just didn't do it. He might be a pervert but he didn't attack you."

Greg looked over to Nick. "You said you believed me."

"...I did. But he has the best alibi working for him, as well as DNA evidence proving his innocence. I'm sorry, Greg, but you need to let this go."


	10. Chapter 10

**We're getting close to the finish line! Enjoy the story? Leave me a review :)**

* * *

The man who attacked Greg recently had been brought into the ER to get the gunshot wound Greg inflicted on him treated. He tried to treat it himself but collapsed on his way home. Brass was able to identify him as Brent Simon, a high school teacher living in North Vegas. He was in stable condition – Greg's bullet had pierced through his arm but didn't hit any arteries. Nick met with Brass to interrogate Simon, trying to shed some light on this confusing sexual assaults.

When Nick arrived back at the lab, Greg was already anxiously waiting for him. "So? How'd it go? How is he?"

"He'll be fine, don't worry. But he's not talking." Nick walked into the break room.

Greg followed behind. "What do you mean? Didn't he say anything useful?"

"I asked him a bunch of questions, he just stared into distance and kept his mouth shut."

Greg sighed as he sat down. "So what now?"

"Well, we can put him on trial for attacking you but that's it."

"You need to get him to tell you who the attacker is. He has to know him, it's not a coincidence he attacked me. He knows I have been attacked before." Greg was getting impatient with this case, he wanted this to go away as quickly as possible. And now he had I.A. on his back and a dark, purple colored bruise on the left side of his mouth. I.A. questioned the severity of the attack and whether Greg needed to use his gun to protect himself or not. It was very unlikely for him to suffer any consequences following the shooting, but it was a major stress factor for him, anyway.

"I know, we tried everything. We offered him a deal, a very good deal, yet he didn't react. We hope he will take it once he talks to a lawyer." He handed Greg the files.

He grabbed them and looked at the pictures. "...There's no way he's the one who attacked me the first time, Nick. Just look at him. He's too short and too skinny."

"...Yeah, maybe..." Nick started to question Greg's memory of the attack. He feared that his friend needed someone to put the blame on and Ed Abrams was conveniently just there.

"...I know you don't believe me."

"It's just..." He sighed deeply, regretting what he was about to say before he even did. "Your description of the attacker sounds a lot like Novak. Maybe your mind's just filling in some blanks. You have been hit on the head, after all."

"I'm not making anything up, Nick. The memory's there, just because I can't explain what's going on doesn't mean I'm wrong." Greg's phone rang. He sighed. "Cole again. He texted me earlier, he wants to talk about the documentary."

"Go ahead, answer it."

"No, I'm done with him. I don't care about this stupid project anymore. He works with convicted sex offenders, there's nothing to talk about."

"Yeah, but..."

"He's not willing to pull Abrams out of the project, Nick. I don't want to have anything to do with either one of them." Greg's phone rang again, but this time it was an unknown number. "...What now?" He answered it. "Sanders. Oh... Okay, yeah. Sure. Yeah, 9a.m. is fine. Thank you. Bye."

"Everything alright?" Nick asked concerned as he saw the look on Greg's face.

"I don't know. I.A. wants to talk to me, they say it's important."

"...Don't worry, you did nothing wrong. We all would've done the same thing."

* * *

"Mr. Sanders, thank you for meeting us." Two detectives from I.A. - detective Miguel Torres and Victoria Green – met with Greg in one of the interrogation rooms in the police station.

Greg sat down next to Brass quite nervously as he nodded.

"We've thoroughly investigated the shooting and everything looks fine. How are you holding up?" Torres asked as he pulled some files out of his suitcase.

"...I-I'm okay. He'll be fine, so..." He looked a little helpless over to Brass, who showed quite a serious face impression. It only made the CSI more nervous.

"We have a few questions. You took these pictures of the crime scene, correct?" Torres showed him pictures of the bullet casings and blood drops Greg took shortly before getting attacked.

"I-I did."

"Did you notice anything... unusual at the scene?"

Again, he looked over to Brass, but the detective didn't look back at him. "Well, uh... It was only two blocks away from the original scene. The bullet casings were different from the ones we found at the other scene and their position was kind of off."

"...You didn't pick them up, put them back down and then take the pictures, right?"

"...Of course not. I didn't bag them until I took enough pictures."

"Just like we thought." Torres smiled at him. "What else seemed off?"

Greg was only getting more confused. "Well, there were a few blood drops near the casings but nowhere else. I didn't really get a chance to think up theories how that happened, but someone could've started to bleed there and quickly put something on the wound to stop the bleeding. But..."

"But what?"

Greg sighed. "It looked a lot like the scene was staged." He grabbed the pictures and looked for a certain one. When he found it, he showed it to them. "Here. The blood drops look weird. Quite unusual."

"That's because it's not blood," Green explained. "It's fake blood, what they use in movies."

Greg raised his eyebrows. "...Fake?"

She nodded. "The reason we needed to talk to you is that officer Young's version of the situation differs slightly from yours and CSI Stokes'. It appears that him and Brent Simon know each other."

"...What?" Greg looked at Brass shocked. The detective had quite a shameful look on his face. Officer Young was one of his best guys and he couldn't believe the accusations.

"Simon called Young around the time of the attack."

"...He did walk away to take a call."

Green nodded. "They had been talking over the phone a few times that night. We believe Young told him that this night was a good opportunity for the attack."

"H-He helped Simon? ...Why?"

Brass finally talked. "They met in a chat room a few months ago. A fetish chat room..."

"...Fetish... What kind of fetish?"

"Well, this chat room is for all kinds of fetishes, but most of the users seem to be into violent stuff. Like blood or injuries."

Greg frowned.

"But the fact that Simon doesn't seem to be into injuries doesn't really add up."

"...He's not?"

Brass shook his head. "According to Young, Simon is more into animals."

"...I suddenly don't feel too bad about shooting him anymore..."

Brass gave him a look. Saying something like that in front of I.A. wasn't the best idea, he thought. "Anyway, we're taking the chat room down. But it doesn't really make sense for Simon to attack you like that. **Twice.** That's not what he's into."

* * *

Archie was working non-stop to not only take the fetish chat room down, but also try to get names and addresses of some of the users with fetishes involving crimes. Of the more than 500 users, 126 were Nevada residents. The tech decided to concentrate on them and hand the others over to the FBI. Half of the users Archie checked had criminal records, mostly involving sex crimes. Just like Ed Abrams - who used the chat room as well – who Greg had been accusing of attacking him. He was brought in for questioning instantly. While Brass and Russell were interrogating Abrams, Archie hurried down the police station with a bunch of files in his hands. "Did they start already?" he asked Greg and Nick as the two were watching the interrogation through the window.

"Yeah, why?"

"I just got off the phone with the FBI. One of the chat room users is a lab tech from Miami. He confessed that he manipulated CODIS."

"...Manipulated, how?" Nick asked interested.

"He's the one who deleted Abrams DNA profile! And dozens others."

Greg looked quite shocked. "...He could've switched DNA profiles, too, right? The sample we took from Abrams, the profile is not his. I bet you it isn't."


	11. Chapter 11

**It's the last chapter already! I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story, the next one's going online in a few days/weeks, i hope you'll read it, too.**

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 **Thanks and have fun with the last chapter!**

 **Big Love,**

 **pikapikatchu**

* * *

Abrams didn't tell Brass and Russell anything, not even after they confronted him with the information about the DNA profile. Just like Simon, he just sat there, staring into space. But it didn't matter, they didn't need his confession. They took another DNA sample and compared it to the sexual assault cases and finally got a hit. The case would prove to be quite difficult in court later, as it was hard to explain to the jury how the DNA profile could've been deleted and switched, but Abrams would get convicted eventually – the jury believed Greg's testimony.

Greg felt pretty good today – Abrams was arrested and Archie and the FBI were able to get the names of all the other chat room users. The CSI felt like this horrible ordeal wasn't completely in vain as it helped put away a lot of perverted criminals.

"Hey Greg," Nick greeted him as he walked into the locker room, where his friend was getting ready for work. "I owe you an apology."

"For what?" he asked as he sat down on the bench in the room.

"I doubted you when I shouldn't have. I should've believed you when you said you knew who attacked you. I'm sorry."

"You really didn't have a reason to believe me." Greg smiled. "But thank you. Everything turned out alright, after all."

"Yeah... But how about you? Are you alright?"

Greg nodded. "My wounds will heal and I've heard the victim Abrams beat into a coma woke up yesterday and is on the way to recovery. Couldn't get much better, right?"

As Nick nodded smiling, Cole walked in. "...Hey Greg, can we talk?"

Nick patted Greg on the shoulder as he left, leaving the two alone.

"I don't know what to say, I'm still in shock. I've known him half my life, I thought I actually **knew** him. Never would've imagined he could do something like that."

Greg nodded. "He probably spent a great deal of his life trying to cover this up."

Cole sighed. "I should've seen the signs. He was so interested in the Novak cases... too interested in seeing pictures. He volunteered to research the victim's families and... you. I'm really sorry, I don't know how to make it up to you."

* * *

Greg had left for his crime scene while Nick was working inside the lab on his case from yesterday. Cole knocked on the opened door of the evidence room. "Hey Mr. Stokes, do you have a minute?"

Nick sighed as he put his work down. "Alright." They walked into the break room. "What is it?"

"I just apologized to Greg for Ed and... I feel like I owe you an apology, too."

Nick shook his head. "I appreciate it but it's not necessary."

"I think it is. I'm sorry for not questioning his involvement enough. It's not easy to accept the darker sides of our friends, especially when it's... **that** dark."

Nick nodded. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry your friend disappointed you."

"Thanks." Cole smiled. "Anyway, that's not all I wanted to talk to you about..." He grabbed a USB stick out of his messenger bag. "I found this in a hidden space in his office desk... The police didn't find it when they searched his desk. I once watched him store a USB stick there, he claimed it had a story on it he was writing on and didn't want anyone to see. I believed him. But now..."

Nick grabbed a glove out of his pocket to take the stick. "Did you use it?"

Cole sighed as he nodded. "I know I shouldn't have, but... I just needed to know. I needed to know if I could've done something about it had I just been a little more nosy... If I just would've looked at that USB stick when I found out about it two months ago... You know?"

Nick nodded. "...So what's on it?"

"Don't show it to Greg. If at all possible, don't let him know about this, alright?"

* * *

After Cole had left the lab, Nick and Russell took a look at the USB stick the filmmaker found in Abram's desk. "That's disgusting..." Nick whispered as they clicked through a picture gallery. The gallery showed pictures of wounds taken from the internet, but also pictures from his victims.

"I think it's a good idea to keep this from Greg." Russell was as shocked as Nick. Some of the pictures were highly disturbing material, even for experienced CSI like the two.

"He even kept some sort of diary and... protocols, I guess, about the attacks." Nick clicked through the files. "This one's dated from half a year ago... He planned to attack Greg for six months."

Russell shook his head. "That's sick. But it'll be useful in court."

"Wait..." Nick was able to detect an invisible word document on the stick. "That's... he planned another attack on Greg." Nick couldn't bring himself to read the detailed description of what Abrams had planned to do to Greg. "He can never find out about this. You have to talk to the D.A. about this, they can't discuss this piece of evidence in court when he's there to testify."

Russell sighed. "I don't know if that's possible, Nick."

"Just do your best. I don't think he would handle this very well."

* * *

For the next few weeks, Nick and Russell were able to keep their little secret from Greg. As these weeks went by, the D.A. was ready to prosecute Ed Abrams. The court sessions were the first times Greg faced the other victims – he preferred not to talk to them. They all made a full recorvery and were able to get questioned by the D.A. and defense lawyer. While it wasn't easy for them, they all did pretty well.

Russell was able to convince both the D.A. and the judge for the case to keep the USB stick from Greg. Since the supervisor knew Greg wouldn't want to sit and watch all the court sessions, anyway, it was quite easy for them not to talk about the stick while Greg was present. When both lawyers were done asking Greg questions, he was allowed to leave the witness stance. He walked out of the court room together with Nick. "You did great, man." He patted Greg on the back.

"Thanks." He released a deep sigh. "How about we go get something to eat and then watch the rest of the court hearing?"

"...You want to watch the rest of it? No, come on, that's boring. Let's just head home."

Greg shook his head. "No, I want to be there when they tell him his sentence."

"Since when are you that vengeful? He'll get what he deserves, no need to stay and watch. Now come on, let's..." Nick grabbed Greg's arm, trying to pull him away from the court room door.

"No, Nick. Wait. I regret not having been able to face Novak in court like that, you know? Testifying against him was the hardest thing I ever did and I was glad when it was over, when I was allowed to leave the room. I think I need to do this, you know?"

As Greg was giving him a smile, Nick sighed. "I don't think it's a good idea, but if you really want to... We should talk first."

* * *

Nick and Greg went out to eat some lunch while the older CSI filled Greg in on the USB stick. "I didn't think it would help you or the case if you knew, Russell and I agreed to keep this away from you."

Greg nodded understanding. "...So it's bad?"

"I didn't get myself to read the whole thing so I don't think you should even try. Do yourself a favor and don't listen to every little detail this sick bastard had in his mind. He made an effort to keep these details hidden so even he knows how perverted they are. Just be glad he got caught in time and forget about it, alright?"

Greg thought about it for a moment. "I really appreciate what you and Russell were doing but..." He stopped himself. "Thank you." He smiled. "You're right. I don't need to prove myself that I can handle this. I don't have to handle this."

Nick looked a bit surprised. He expected his friend to react a little different. "Really?"

"Yeah. I'm not even sure I meant what I just said about Novak. I regret that I wasn't in the emotional state to deal with the court hearing but... I don't think it's bad I didn't go. It's okay, right?"

"...Well, yeah. Sure, of course." Nick couldn't help but look quite impressed. "You know, realizing that you don't need to put up the strength to watch the hearing proves a lot more strength than forcing yourself to do anything you're not ready for. I'm proud of you."

Greg smiled again, but this time a bit sheepishly. "You know what? Let's head home. These court dates are boring, anyway."

"Are you sure?"

Greg nodded as he pulled his wallet out to pay for their food. "Let's eat up and then go home. Maybe watch a movie or something, keep our minds off of everything."

* * *

Greg knocked on Nick's door with a relaxed smile on his face, holding a DVD in his hand. "Hey. Look what I got."

Nick invited Greg in as he smiled at his friend confused. "Hey, what's going on?" He was quite surprised about Greg's good mood. It's been a while since he had seen his friend with such a carefree attitude. It was a fresh breath of air.

"The movie's finished."

This surprised him even more. "It is? ...Why are you smiling?"

He put the DVD on the coffee table as he made his way into the kitchen. "I thought we could watch it."

"...You're not serious."

"Yes I am." Greg chuckled as he walked back into the living room with two beers in his hand.

"But... why? Why the sudden change?"

Greg shrugged as he opened the bottle. "I've had a lot time to think about it, you know? You were right, it doesn't have to change anything. Not making the movie won't undo what Novak did, and making the movie doesn't change anything, either. And Cole promised me it's a tasteful, informative piece of art... His words, not mine."

Nick put the DVD in the DVD player a little insecure. "If you say so... But we can stop at any point, alright?"

"I'll be fine. I'm trying to take this as it is, you know? A part of my past. It doesn't also have to be my present." He smiled as he sat down.

"...Alright." Nick was still quite unsure, but he was willing to be at Greg's side if he couldn't handle watching the movie, after all.

"Besides, I told my mom about it and she thinks it's cool a movie's being made about me. ...I think she didn't quite understand the movie was actually about Novak, but whatever."

Nick smiled disbelieving. The man sitting by his side right now was nothing like Greg had been the last few weeks following Ed Abram's vicious attack.

The two kept talking while the movie was playing. They didn't pay too much attention to it, but concentrated on it more at the important scenes. Greg's mood changed a bit when he saw pictures of the scene being shown while the voice-over told what happened in Robin's apartment that night. He was able to keep his mood carefree and upbeat shortly after the scenes. While it wasn't easy to watch it, experiencing the scene from a different perspective had something therapeutic – he felt a lot better about it after the movie.

* * *

Ende.


End file.
